- Acid Test by Quixote - http://www.molvray.com/acidtest -

My life in their claws

I feel like a mouse in a room full of cats. In the struggle for health care reform, will Big 0’s need for popularity or his need for Big Medicine’s money win out?
cat watching mouse across a chess board
A few weeks ago, I would have bet on number two. Never forget that this is the (expletive deleted) whose idea of the right way to gut Illinois’ attempt at State-assisted health care was to say

“We radically changed [the health care bill] in response to concerns that were raised by the insurance industry.” (Obama, 2004/05/19 [1])

But (will wonders never cease?) the Dimmicrats seem to have understood that they have to get something accomplished this term or people might start to wonder why the Repugs were to blame for everything. Even Big 0 is on board for using the “nuclear option” to stop filibusters on health care reform. So they’re going to reform.

This is giving me that uncomfortable Hope(tm) feeling. They never did specify what they were hoping for. Turned out to be rather different from what I was hoping for [2]. Now they’re going to reform health care from a Kafkaesque trap to . . . to what? They’re not saying.

But the fact that the health insurance moguls have suddenly started participating [3] gives me a bad feeling. Next thing you know, health care will be radically reformed in response to their concerns. I can’t bring myself to share Krugman’s kind words [4], although I hope he’s right that industry interest in controlling costs is “some of the best policy news I’ve heard in a long time.”

I fear the worst, though. Our only leverage against it is threatening to throw the Congresscritters out of their jobs. Which brings me to the point of this post. (You knew I’d get somewhere eventually, right? Right?) Call, email, fax the relevant Critters daily. Hourly, if you have the stomach for it.

Katiebird has corralled a wealth of information in one place [5]. Her posts and others at The Confluence [6] have really helped me know when and what to do for maximum effect. (Keep it up, Katie! and Stateofdisbelief! and everybody!) The single payer day of action [7] was a real W00T! moment. Now that the industry has decided to “help,” constant threats to Congress are our only hope(not tm).

2 Comments (Open | Close)

2 Comments To "My life in their claws"

#1 Comment By Greenconsciousness On 13 Jun, 2009 @ 11:52

BOs reform is going to force everyone to buy health insurance and he will fund those who cannot afford it by cutting Medicare and Medicaid benefits. BO does what is good for corporations and they fund his campaigns and promote him in the media they own. The working class is thrown to the predatory credit economy and sweat ed from birth until life closes. Single payer would have stopped that and been a blessing but it will not happen. there will be reform in name only like Bush’s prescription coverage.

#2 Comment By quixote On 15 Jun, 2009 @ 13:44

That’s what I want to know: why is single payer “off the table”? WHY?

Apparently one big deal is that it’s so much more efficient than the current system, it’ll throw a couple of million people working for the insurance industry out of work.

Two things about that: Throwing people out of work doesn’t seem to worry the powers-that-be much in any other context. If joblessness is the problem, come up with job training and transition packages for them and everyone else in that situation!